This spooky middle-grade audiobook has all the cozy comforts of autumn, and Golden Voice Alyssa Bresnahan sets the tone perfectly. When Eve runs away from the orphanage, she's unexpectedly rescued and then adopted by the Pumpkin King. Bresnahan's Pumpkin King sounds delightfully gruff and grumbly, but he's caring and protective, and he just wants to be a good father and give Eve a welcoming home. He takes her to Hallowell Valley, where she discovers that she's the only living human among a bustling populace of scarecrows, witches, vampires, werewolves, skeletons, and other mysterious entities. Bresnahan communicates Eve's confusion, curiosity, and determination, especially once she makes friends in Hallowell and sets out to solve some mysteries and confront her own deep-seated fears. An old-fashioned listening pleasure.
(Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
Duration: 9 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668643976
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
The audiobook has the comforting, magical quality of an irresistible bedtime story.
Author/narrator Coelho’s bright, friendly first-person narration brings 12-year-old Relic Hamilton to life. When Relic encounters a dangerous genie in his grandfather’s antique shop, he leaves his ordinary London life behind for a supernatural adventure that transports him through history and around the globe. While the journey has thrills and scary moments, the characters always have hope—a central theme of the audiobook. Coelho brings variety to the voices of his other characters, like Relic’s grandfather’s “Jamaican-teacher voice” and the gravelly rumble of a pirate captain from the Age of Sail who sounds exactly like an archetypal pirate ought to.
The audiobook has the comforting, magical quality of an irresistible bedtime story. (Fantasy. 9-13)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
Duration: 5 hrs
DD ISBN: 9798349162169
Publisher: Dreamscape
Review Posted Online: March 25, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
A magical blending of fantasy and reality.
Narrator Emily Eiden's expressive rendition of Auden "Denny" Greene and her best friend Runa is feminine and childlike, suitable for a tale of girls on the cusp of turning 12. Denny and Runa manifest their active imaginations in a magical world they call Sorrowfeld, filled with dragons and princesses, but Denny is dismayed to find that Runa seems to be growing out of this world and into a new phase of her life. Denny, however, still needs the escapism of Sorrowfeld to cope with challenging circumstances in her real life—while in Sorrowfeld, Princess Auden struggles against actual dragons.
A magical blending of fantasy and reality. (Fantasy. 8-13)Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
Duration: 7 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063348189
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: April 1, 2026
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